Fraud fears surround Najib's reelection as Malaysian PM

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was sworn in Monday by the King and started his second term after National Front, his ruling coalition, won its consecutive 13th general election Sunday, which was branded as fraudulent by the opposition and ignited public outrage.

Disputes from voters against the "dark and corrupt" election procedure went viral online, while opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim called for a rally on Wednesday to protest the result which he said was the "worst electoral fraud in our history."

Anwar was also planning to file petitions or seek judicial measure over the fraud allegations in some constituencies.

A petition was seen on the White House's website asking attention to the alleged electoral fraud by the National Front to allow about 600,000 Bangladeshi workers to vote, and had collected 219,050 signatures late Monday, far exceeding the 100,000 automatic response threshold.

Several Malaysian citizens reached by the Global Times said the power suddenly went out at some polling centers and multiple boxes of extra votes for the ruling coalition appeared after the power was restored during the counting stage.

"We're sad to see the democracy we've fought so hard for being trampled, but we won't give up," said one of the voters.

Azizuddin Sani, a political analyst from Universiti Utara Malaysia, told AFP that it would be "very difficult" for the opposition to challenge the result.

The National Front is significantly weaker than before, capturing 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats, while it won 90 percent of the seats in 2004. Led by Najib, it has been facing public requests for reform and serious questioning about corruption.

Most of Malaysia's ethnic Chinese have turned away from the National Front after being disappointed by its promises of reform. The Malaysian Chinese Association and Malaysian Indian Congress parties are part of Najib's ruling coalition, but accusations have long been heard that the two parties no longer have the best interests of their ethnicities in mind.

Global Times - Agencies

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